October 2012

That's good then.

In other news, I have put proper formatting on my portfolio, and added my references to my philosophy essay. Woo! Basically now I have no excuse to not do the final edits...

Finished off my 52nd story. Since that was a major goal completed I am starting back up with writing and submitting a short story every week.

My goals are now:
1. I am 800,000 words into the 1,000,000 words in two years dare.
2. I will write and submit a short story a week
3. I will do Nanowrimo next month (and try to overachieve)

Got at least a B on my Shakespeare midterm And we located my MIA presentation partner. He was sick all last week. I can empathize... >.> We've got til next Monday now.

~Amber~

Hello! Newbie here

Glad to have found this page! (AW is so big!...yikes!)

Anyways, getting PUMPED for NaNoWriMo. I've been in a severe writers block, and finally got out of it recently because of planning for NaNo. It basically got me to sit my ass down and plan as much as I can and build on ideas. Do you guys have any suggestions on how you build on ideas? I'm trying to make my MCs (I have 2) suffer a bit. I'm also really focused on their unlikely friendship and then putting in the magic and fairytale concepts in as I go along.

Well, I have to finalise 2 assignments today. It is now 12.16pm. That gives me about 8 hours before my brain shuts down.

Can I do it? I'm gonna give it a bloody good try!

You can do it, Cliff.

Hello Newbie. I usually end up building up on my ideas accidentally... Sometimes I'll sit down and try to think of things to add, other times the ideas smack me in the face until I get them down somewhere. I'd recommend starting to write (either a prewrite or your NaNo novel on 11/1 ) and just letting them come to you. Let them smack you in the face. If you don't like them (or if they don't like you ), you can delete them on 12/1. Just have fun with it.

I'm trying to juggle math homework due tomorrow that I haven't yet started and helping my friend with her uni application essay because I'm a better proofreader than most of the people she interacts with... I'm not getting much math done... I'm trying, but...

... Two days to go and I have NO idea what I'm doing for NaNo yet... >.< Dammit...

~Amber~

I've got plenty to go on with for NaNo... Won't be starting a brand new novel, but yeah, plenty to do.

Okay... So I've had lunch. Now I guess there's no excuse - must edit assignments!

Hmm. Okay... Seems my philosophy essay is pretty clean right now. I just did an editing pass, and only changed 2 sentences.

I guess I better edit my poetry portfolio now... That massive beast! If I can get both ready to print by 3pm (about 2 hours) that'd be great. I might then have some time to do my own thing.

xXVampyrePrincessXx said:

You can do it, Cliff.

Hello Newbie. I usually end up building up on my ideas accidentally... Sometimes I'll sit down and try to think of things to add, other times the ideas smack me in the face until I get them down somewhere. I'd recommend starting to write (either a prewrite or your NaNo novel on 11/1 ) and just letting them come to you. Let them smack you in the face. If you don't like them (or if they don't like you ), you can delete them on 12/1. Just have fun with it.

I'm trying to juggle math homework due tomorrow that I haven't yet started and helping my friend with her uni application essay because I'm a better proofreader than most of the people she interacts with... I'm not getting much math done... I'm trying, but...

... Two days to go and I have NO idea what I'm doing for NaNo yet... >.< Dammit...

~Amber~

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice! I tried doing it right off the tip of my hat last time but I hated it, so I quit. But I'm so serious about this story because I love it so much and it's a part of me now, these characters basically aren't going to go away until I tell their story right, so I better not get it wrong. I'm a big outliner and I love it when ideas hit me smack in the head I just feel like if I don't plan, I would just be so frustrated having no ideas and knowing me, I'll stop writing.

I'm probably OVER planning which isn't good either. Even though I feel like I over planned (a 6 page outline with plot points and then 2pgs for my 2 MCs character sketches and about 10 pgs worth of research). Even with all this, I feel like I don't know much about the middle/end of the novel. (well a general idea of how I want the characters to develop and the conflict that needs to be resolved and that's about it.)

I'm planning on outlining anything that comes to mind and reviewing my research tomorrow and then just letting it sit the 31st so it can simmer before starting writing at midnight on the 1st. Anyone have any tips/advice on how to spend the day to prep before NaNo?

But yeah writing and outlining every day has really helped me. It really does help me build ideas and flesh things out, so that's one good thing that's come from this to face the writer's block. And it's not even November yet Though I'm sure there is more writer's block in my future...

Hahahaha... Lunch... Good one Cliff... *7:49 PM here*

~Amber~

measure_in_love said:

I'm probably OVER planning which isn't good either. Even though I feel like I over planned (a 6 page outline with plot points and then 2pgs for my 2 MCs character sketches and about 10 pgs worth of research). Even with all this, I feel like I don't know much about the middle/end of the novel. (well a general idea of how I want the characters to develop and the conflict that needs to be resolved and that's about it.)

Click to expand...

Once for NaNo, I had about seven or eight pages of character outlines, another five or six of worldbuilding notes, and another four or five for a quick outline.

And then high school got in the way. Bleh.

~Amber~

xXVampyrePrincessXx said:

Hahahaha... Lunch... Good one Cliff... *7:49 PM here*

~Amber~

Click to expand...

Well, it was lunch time here...

Ugh. I'm staring at my portfolio, and I really just want to be done with it.

ETA: Printing the portfolio now. I decided I was sick of looking at it. I either pass or fail. Right now I don't really care. It's due tomorrow, and what I've got should be good enough to pass, anyway.

Going to give more love to my essay later. That one I at least care about...

ETA2: Half an hour later, the portfolio has been printed and put into a folder. Not only did I have 52 pages of my own, there were also 25 pages from other readings that I needed to include...

My poor printer is nearly out of ink. Hopefully there's enough for the philosophy essay!

ETA3: Did a final edit on the essay and printed it out. The rest of today will involve me winding down from a stressful semester. Neither assignment is perfect, but whatever. I'm sick of being a perfectionist.

So that leaves my poems to be edited in the coming week, and an exam. *breathes* I can do this... And then I'll have 3 months to myself!

Handed in my 2 assignments. Really can't change them now! Trying to put them out of mind...

Also, HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Australia doesn't really *do* Halloween, so I have no plans. But I wish you all a night of wicked fun.

Got an A on that midterm paper. The funny part is she wrote a comment about telling that I really took the time to revise it and she could tell I didn't send the first draft. It's true... I sent draft 1.01 I literally changed like maybe two words of my first draft and sent it in.

I think I might be a little insane at the moment... I'm considering combining NaNoWriMo with my final project for the class... >.> Am I crazy? Should I do it?

Happy Halloween!

~Amber~

Combining how?

Also, congrats on the A! I write clean first drafts too. It's a lifesaver sometimes.

Basically the final project can be on anything related to the class that we haven't had time to cover in class, including a creative project. So I was going to take one of our class readings and change a significant aspect of it and use that as my NaNo novel/final project. It's definitely a form of motivation... That, and I really have no other ideas for a final project and that sounds the most fun to me...

~Amber~

Wouldn't a novel be a bit long for a final assignment?

Perhaps you could write it as a short story, so you get the whole thing down, and then expanding on it for NaNo?

It may be a bit long, but it's due about a week after NaNo ends... Just considering it. I'm going to talk to my professor about it tomorrow and see what she thinks. I could do the whole thing and then just turn in a portion of it for the grade or something. I don't know yet.

~Amber~

In the spirit of leaving things to the last minute, I finally did yesterday what I'd been saying I'd do for days and drafted up a couple of blog posts for November. Of course if I'd pulled my finger out I could have had them edited and ready and scheduled on Wordpress by now, but, whatever! At least I've got a start on them.